France: investing in upskilling and sustainable employment for the young and the unemployed

Large-scale implementation of a five-year major skills investment plan (PIC -Plan d’investissement dans les compétences) is taking off in 2019. Launched in September 2017, the plan foresees a total of EUR 15 billion to fund the training of one million young people and one million jobseekers.

Linking skill needs analysis, new training paths and innovation

The PIC aims at upskilling the least qualified people and achieving more equal access to training. It addresses the challenges of transforming businesses due to the digital revolution and ecological conversion and the modernisation of the vocational training system. It is structured along three axes:

investing in skill needs analysis to inform vocational training policies and support people better (axis 1);

financing new training and support pathways in sustainable employment (axis 2);

innovating and transforming through experimenting (axis 3).

An independent scientific evaluation committee will be in charge of monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of the plan and produce evaluations.

the first calls for proposals concerned projects on innovative approaches for social and professional inclusion, projects to foster the professional integration of refugees, and apprenticeship preparatory courses (axis 3).

Calls for projects planned in 2019, include one on innovative methods for data employment analysis, and one on outreach and mobilisation, to identify and mobilise young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs). A call for projects to support the transformation of training organisations and pedagogical approaches will also be launched.

Implementation at regional level

About half the total planned budget will be allocated to regional implementation. The skills investment plan is tailored to each region through regional pacts for investment in skills (PRIC- Pactes Régionaux d’Investissement dans les compétences), signed by the State and the regional authorities concerned.

Most of the 13 regional authorities in mainland France have already signed or are about to sign a regional pact. These contracts follow on from the 2018 start-up agreements and are based on diagnoses of territorial skills and training needs, involving regional partners.

The funding provided will finance new training courses, in addition to existing training schemes already funded previously by the regions. The State's contribution will average EUR 8 500 per pathway.

The regional pacts must offer qualifying pathways to employment, with renewed content, taking account of current and future needs of the economy. They must also guarantee access to qualification paths for the most vulnerable groups by consolidating key competences. Finally, in a transversal way, they also must enable the modernisation of the content and methods of training and support offered to learners/beneficiaries.